former<\/em> vegetarians. \u00a0But this may change, as more vegan and vegetarian options become available in restaurants and grocery stores.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Evidence for the health benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets is ambiguous. \u00a0A large 2002-2007 study of Seventh Day Adventists who consumed a plant-only diet seemed to show substantially lower mortality rates, but a smaller survey of British vegetarians in 2016 failed to demonstrate such a benefit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, large studies have demonstrated that people who consume red meat in significant quantities, as opposed to poultry, have higher overall mortality rates. \u00a0And eating large amounts of processed meats, specifically \u2014 meats such as bacon and salami \u2014 is linked to colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A 2016 research study at the University of Oxford found that a global transition to well-balanced vegan diets might yield as many as 8.1 million fewer deaths a year. Worldwide vegetarianism would do almost as well, reducing annual deaths by 7.3 million.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, most of the benefit claimed in that study could apparently still be achieved if omnivores simply ate better-balanced diets, including less meat. \u00a0If, for instance, the world adopted what the Oxford study called a \u201chealthy global diet,\u201d which would include less sugar than most in the West typically consume as well as plenty of fruits and vegetables and only, on average, 43 grams of red meat daily, the reduction in deaths would still be approximately 5.1 million.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rich-world diets tend to get all their daily protein requirement (about 50-60 grams) from animals. \u00a0And, in fact, Americans eat 90 grams of protein a day while Europeans consume 85 grams \u2014 most of it from animal products.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But protein can also be obtained from plants. \u00a0And relying more on plant proteins might convey notable benefits, both related to human health and to the environment:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because meat is energy rich, eating more protein than is needed, and getting it from animals, entails consuming a large number of calories. \u00a0And excess calories are likely to be stored as fat.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vegans, by contrast, eat less protein and what they get comes from less energy-rich and less potentially fattening products. \u00a0A 2017 French study found vegans and vegetarians were both eating more varied diets and consuming fewer overall calories \u2014 and eating only 67 grams of protein daily (vegetarians) or 62 grams (vegans), compared to 81 grams among the meat-eaters who were surveyed \u2014 which, rather than veganism or vegetarianism as such, may account for the difference in health outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additionally, growing edible plants requires less land than raising meat does. \u00a0More land is required per calorie of food in beef production than in the production of broccoli. Raising livestock takes about 80% of all agricultural land while producing just 18% of the world\u2019s calories. \u00a0A study from Israel\u2019s Weizmann Institute\u00a0contends that, if America obtained its protein from plants rather than animals, that would be equivalent to increasing the food supply by a third.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amazingly, too, cattle farming alters the climate. \u00a0For one thing, clearing land for pasture creates greenhouse gases. \u00a0In addition, cattle and similar animals produce methane, a fairly powerful greenhouse gas \u2014 mostly, incidentally, released by belching rather than otherwise \u2014 and methane warms our environment. The United Nations Food and Agriculture organization calculates that cattle generate up to two-thirds of the greenhouse gases from livestock, and that they are the world\u2019s fifth largest source of methane. \u00a0\u201cIf cows were a country,\u201d says The Economist<\/em>, \u201cthe United Herds of Earth would be the planet\u2019s third largest greenhouse-gas emitter.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Oxford study, by 2050 a vegan world\u2019s agriculture would produce 70% lower greenhouse emissions than \u00a0a world where people ate as they do today. \u00a0In a world that had adopted the mixed \u201chealthy global diet,\u201d they would be 29% lower. \u00a0Raising cattle produces seven times more emissions per ton of protein than raising pork or poultry does, 12 times more than soya, and 30 times more than wheat. \u00a0And here\u2019s a thought: \u00a0Getting our protein from insects\u2014who are very efficient converters of intake into output\u2014might yield a world that was almost indistinguishable, in environmental terms, from a vegan one.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Continuing from the prior post: \u00a0 An interesting and, to my mind, important article appeared in the 13 October 2018 issue of The Economist: \u00a0 \u201cThe retreat from meat:\u00a0Why people in rich countries are eating more vegan food:\u00a0The further they go, the better\u201d \u00a0 I\u2019m drawing here from that article: \u00a0 Across the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1809,3523,788,55,2481,2478,2147],"class_list":["post-70288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-diet","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-veganism","tag-vegetarianism","tag-word-of-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>